Skagway is looking to other communities to see if the unique non-profit model of community land trusts can ease the squeeze. About a dozen Skagwegians met to discuss a community land trust as a way to address the borough’s housing crisis.

 

Land trusts are an unconventional path to home ownership. A land trust retains ownership of the land, and caps the profit the homeowner can make when they sell, ensuring prices remain lower than traditional homes. With just a few land trusts in the state, community members had a lot of questions when they met Nov. 4 at Skagway Development Corporation.

“A good way to think about it is that the land trust is adding a rung to the ladder of land ownership and home ownership,” Aric Baldwin said. “For most people, getting to that first rung is just too big a leap. It’s too big a step, and so the land trust allows for a middle rung to be there. By taking the land out of that equation, all of a sudden, you’re making homeownership available to a lot larger portion of the population that otherwise wouldn’t be.”

Aric Baldwin is a member of Skagway’s Housing Ad Hoc Committee, but he attended the land trust discussion as a private citizen. He’s been researching community land trusts, or CLTs. Specifically, he’s been watching Northern Community Land Trust in Whitehorse, Yukon and the Sitka Community Land Trust.

The White Horse land trust formed in 2020. They expect to open 32 housing units this summer costing 30-40% below market price. Buyers cannot exceed income limitations and a portion of the units are reserved for single parents and disabled individuals.

Sitka’s land trust began in 2006. They have 10 existing cottages and by 2027, expect to have a total of 14 homes and six apartments. Their first home re-sold a few months ago.

When a house in a land trust sells, it’s a very different process than a typical house transaction.

“It doesn’t go to the highest bidder, because that’s what keeps it affordable,” Baldwin said. “So when you sign up, you basically know what your sale price is going to be, essentially whether the board decides it’s going to be inflation plus 3%, or whatever it is over the period of ownership. Then when you sell, your sale price is pretty much determined by the bylaws of the land trust.”

The owner who is selling might not even pick the next owner. The home might go to the next qualified person on the waitlist.

Baldwin said one advantage to land trusts is the ability to accept donated land and apply for grants to offset the cost of building. The municipality has identified land at Garden City RV Park, the former site of the St. Pius X Mission Residential Boarding School for Native Children, as a possible land trust location. Other municipal property has been suggested for a community land trust site by the Skagway Development Corporation and the Housing Ad Hoc Committee.

Most of the attendees at the land trust meeting are already homeowners. Jen Thuss lives in Skagway year-round and owns a home, but worries about housing stability for community members.

“It’s not just necessarily about land ownership, but being able to rent as well,” Thuss said. “Because there are a lot of people, I think, who want to live here, who don’t want to own.”

The discussion turned to Skagwegians who might not be in support of a land trust.

Eliza Russell, who hosted the event for Skagway Development Corporation, said that for many nonprofits she’s worked with, it can be hard to get buy-in from people who don’t benefit. 

“If it doesn’t serve me, why would I do that?” she said. “It’s a hard mentality that I’ve seen a lot.”

Molly McCluskey has spoken to many locals about housing in her job as a freelance reporter. She said finding permanent housing in Skagway takes years and is emotionally exhausting.

“Sometimes it’s just, ‘Oh, my God, we’ve gone through this thing, and we don’t ever want to have to think about it again and relive what we went through,’” McCluskey said.  “And I think once folks are set, they’re like, ‘Okay, thank God, we’re good.’ To have to go through that again for something that is not us, you know, it’s a heavy lift to ask folks sometimes.”

At their last meeting, Skagway’s assembly voted to hire Burlington Associates to explore the feasibility of a land trust. That’s the same company that assisted Sitka with their land trust set-up.

Everyone agreed that if a land trust was established, it would be just one solution of many needed for housing security.

Other suggestions were items that have been brought up countless times over the years such as planning and zoning reform and extending water and sewer past the town’s main bridge.